Cathedral of Darkness
by FlamingWolf
Summary: Robin is sent on a solo hunt with devestating results.


Trembling, Robin opened the door and looked down the two stories of crumbling, dark stair. The entire office staff was on tender hooks. Sakaki had disappeared a month previously on a solo hunt, and Amon had searched everywhere, turning up nothing. When the order for Robin to take a mission alone had come in this morning, Michael made four typing errors, Karasuma choked into her coffee, Doujima swore it was a conspiracy, and Amon calmly went upstairs to request to go in her place.

It had done no good. She now stood alone and terrified at the top of a nearly non-existent stair, looking down into nothingness.

Amon was waiting for her in his car a block away. She refused, for Amon's sake, to remain a coward here. She wouldn't shame him. Taking a deep breath, she stepped onto the top step and forced herself to keep moving.

Mercifully, she didn't remember the descent. She looked back up the nightmarish stairs in time to see the wind blow shut the door she had so carefully left propped open. Robin swallowed hard, stifling the scream that threatened to tear its way out. She was left in a total darkness and didn't dare use her craft, for fear of attracting the witch's attention. She also didn't want to enter the den in complete darkness.

She turned slowly. A light gleamed far off down what was apparently a corridor. Moving softly and carefully, she slipped towards that elusive gleam, reaching it in a matter of moments.

She stopped, eyes widening in astonishment. The "room" seemed to actually be an old, underground cathedral. Lights shown from the ceiling and behind stained glass windows set into the walls. A crucifix hung above the sanctuary.

Instead of an altar, three coffins adorned the raised dais and the floor had no pews. Robin gasped as the realization hit her:

_'The witch thinks he's a vampire!'_ She thought horrified as she silently approached the coffins, discovering to her trepidation that they were open. The first held a well-preserved gentlemanly figure with pomaded blond hair dressed in red satin seventeenth century attire. He was beautiful, and Robin found that her hand had reached out and stroked the hair out of his face without her permission. He appeared to be sleeping.

She moved to look into the second. The man within was from a nightmare. His face had been partly eaten away by acid, and he was decaying. His head had been cut off and tied on upside down. Robin screamed, and began to run, sanity strained by the vision of horror that rested before her.

She collided with a strong, well-muscled figure, and turned right into the arms of the 'gentlemanly vampire'. He crushed her to him tightly enough that she couldn't struggle. She tried to summon her craft and found that it was somehow blocked.

"Do you like the cathedral I have built for you, my huntress? I had you specifically in my mind." The witch smiled at her, and she felt vile fingers crawling through her mind. "I knew you'd be impressed by it. Your...Amon would have seen the great library of Alexandria before the burning. Sakaki here saw one of Laura Croft's tombs."

He gently turned her head back to the third coffin, wherein a pale, ghostly Sakaki bled sluggishly from twin puncture wounds on his neck.

"Get out of my mind!" Robin cried out. The witch laughed at her helpless show of defiance.

"I like hunters best of all or my prey; so strong, so brave. Always, you fight to the last. I like to see the fear in their eyes by the end, lips parted as they pant with terror. Just as yours are now, my dear. Oh, such soft, tender pink rosebuds! How wide your eyes are, Robin!" The witch bent, inhaling her scent. He smiled cruelly again, and bent down to kiss the helpless little huntress. He laughed viciously as she tried to twist away, and kissed her. She struggled more desperately, and when she could, bit into his tongue, forcing him from her mouth.

Startled, he pulled back, but the malignant smile returned almost immediately. Lazily, he pulled her hair down from the handlebars. In a smooth movement, he had her back in the main sanctuary of the church, waltzing her to a music that had started quietly and was now noticeable. "I could taste your fear and defiance, my beloved. I want to add desire to that mix. I admire your fire, Robin, pun most definitely intended. We could raise a new race of witches, the two of us. We have the power to be great. All I need is you. I could use your love...or even your lust. You will be mine forever!"

Uselessly, desperately wishing for him, Robin cried out a single name.

"Amon!"

Footsteps pounded down the hall. The witch half turned, his grip on her loosening. Robin shoved away, her body landing on the hard, stone floor, aggravating the bruising from the witch's grip. The sound of an orbo gun rang through the vault, and the cathedral vanished to be replaced by a dark, lantern-lit room as Robin's craft flooded back into her body. Strong hands reached down and pulled her to her feet, gently steadying her.

"Sakaki's hurt!" She gasped out, stunned by Amon's sudden appearance.

"Where?"

"Third coffin."

He stepped around her and moved to look inside. In an instant, he had his communicator in hand, and he was speaking into it.

"One hunter down requiring medical attention. Witch to be picked up: mind-based illusions and craft blocking. Tell Solomon we won't be doing any more solo hunts."

Amon put up his communicator and turned to see Robin trembling. Slowly, almost as if unsure of himself, Amon recrossed to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, protecting her, not restricting. She buried her face deeply in his coat and sobbed bitterly.

"All you had to do was call for me, Robin." He told her. Amon held her, fingers running through her hair, comforting her until the team from Factory arrived.

&

An annoyed Amon tuned his hearing around the apartment as Touko laughed. She never took him seriously on that particular topic, and he could never be more serious in any other conversational topic. He paused, and listened, hearing another sob.

"Excuse me," He said, and rose, moving to Robin's door. She lay asleep in a patch of moonlight, tears streaming down her cheeks as she whimpered. Somehow, he knew of which hunt she dreamt, and moved to her side, gently reaching out to touch her cheek. She rolled towards him, and he sat, gently lifting her into his lap and holding her close.

"It's all right, Little Bird. Sakaki's pulled through. You're safe here. I won't let anything harm you." He murmured. She quieted, an arm slipping up around her neck. Touko had followed and stood in the doorway. She found her eyes filling at the sight of the tender look her boyfriend was bestowing on her roommate.

"It's over, Amon," She said softly. "I can't compete with that tenderness. How long have you been in love with her?"

Amon was silent a long moment, berating himself for acquiring a weakness in his partner. Slowly, he answered,

"Two weeks. I fell in love with the only pure thing in a cathedral of darkness."


End file.
